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Latest news from A Luxury Travel Blog (Q2, 2022)

Hello readers! I’m trying to get into a habit of providing quarterly updates from the blog, so here goes with the second instalment for this year… Reviews We have been doing more and more reviews lately, including – amongst others – this beautiful property in the Lake District. We have at least a dozen reviews already scheduled for the remainder of the year, covering everything from the Best B&B in the World for two consecutive years (according to Tripadvisor) to a number of different places in Iceland. I am currently writing from a beautiful luxury shepherds hut in North Wales so keep a look out for that review very soon. For anyone interested in having a professional travel writer and representative of A Luxury Travel Blog carry out first-hand reviews for destinations, DMOs, airlines, luxury hotels, resorts, vacation rentals and other accommodation providers, cruises, yachts, restaurants, attractions, tours, etc., please submit a request using this Google Form. TravMedia Awards A Luxury Travel Blog was delighted to have been shortlisted for ‘Influencer of the Year’ in the Travmedia Awards recently. We attended a black tie awards ceremony, at a table kindly sponsored by the Croatia National Tourist Board, at The Londoner in Leicester Square last week. Unfortunately, we weren’t successful this time, but it was a great event nevertheless! To have been shortlisted as finalist every year since the inaugural TravMedia Awards back in 2020, as well as in the TravMedia sit-UP Awards that preceded them, is an honour in itself. Arabian Travel Market It’s looking like next month, I’ll be representing A Luxury Travel Blog on a panel session titled “How to work with influencers post-COVID” at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The panel will be led by a good friend and former travel blogger Matt Gibson, CEO of UpThink, an agency specializing in content and influencer marketing for travel brands and destinations. The presentation will include key takeaways from research conducted with influencers and industry stakeholders, as well as recommendations for how to work most effectively with influencers post-COIVD. Do please come along and say ‘hello’ if you are attending the conference – it is great to see in-person events slowly becoming more normal again. Technical changes We’re working with a company in Romania on some behind-the-scenes technical updates to the site. Probably nothing that you’ll readily notice at the front-end – things like Wordpress updates, removing some plug-ins we no longer use, fixing some of the site’s functionality, and so on. We’re also looking to automate one or two tasks through Zapier, to make everything run more efficiently and improve the overall performance of the site. 25,000 Tripadvisor followers Not many people think of Tripadvisor having its own social network… but it does! And we have a reasonably healthy number of followers on there that has just passed the 25,000 mark. If you are not already following us on there, you’ll find us at https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Profile/luxurytravel A positive outlook for 2022 We are hopeful for a strong return for the travel industry in 2022. Fingers crossed, we are past the worst of the pandemic now. And let’s all hope and pray that the tragic events in Ukraine soon stop. Traffic to A Luxury Travel Blog is definitely seeing a positive upturn and we are experiencing a noticeable increase in enquiries from the industry which has to be a good sign for tourism as a whole. Onwards and upwards!

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.

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16 Comments

  1. I’ve always thought that A Luxury Travel Blog speaks with hundreds of different voices from all over the globe. You’ll read something from Africa about safaris, move on to stargazing in Latin America and then have a review of a luxury hotel in Derbyshire or wherever. Personally, I much prefer that to almost reading what one blogger thinks. I think I’d get tired of hearing the same voice over and over again.

    1. Thanks, Mike… I’m glad you are enjoying all the variety we offer. We are a little different to many other travel blogs in that we’re more like an online magazine with contributions from different writers. My own trips are documented, of course, but nobody in their right mind wants to hear from only me all the time!

    2. I also enjoy the comments. You get some interesting comments from a lot of people with interesting viewpoints.

    3. Thanks, Liz! We like it if the posts generate comments and stimulate conversation between our readers. It makes for a more engaged experience for all concerned.

    4. What’s nice is that most of the comments are quite helpful and positive. I’ve got a Times Online subscription and the tone of some of the comments is very bitter and negative. Often the comments are edited or have to be deleted. Sometimes with controversial stories the comments section has to be “turned off”. Debate is much more civilised at A Luxury Travel Blog.

  2. traveling is one of the things which i miss the most in this pandemic era. at least the restrictions are no eased up now.

    1. Indeed – I heard in the news today that Summer flight bookings are exceeding pre pandemic levels, so it certainly looks like travel is back!

  3. As a committed Luddite I didn’t really get the techno stuff. Otherwise it all seemed good news. The travel industry is back on its feet again.

    1. Hi Pete – don’t worry, you don’t need to get it. But in simple terms, there’s basically various bits of maintenance that need to go on behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. You wouldn’t necessarily know about it or see any change but, if we didn’t do some of these things like Wordpress updates and plug-in updates, then you may well notice things not working as they should! If you haven’t noticed anything like that, that’s probably a good sign.

  4. I hope that rising rates of inflation don’t hit the revival in the travel industry too badly. I have heard some friends saying that what with energy costs and food inflation they worry that they won’t be able to afford a holiday this year.

    1. Whilst I’m sure that will be a choice for some, sadly, I’m hoping it won’t have such an impact on the luxury sector. I think there’s enough pent up demand for that to be very buoyant this year.

  5. I like it that you are doing hotel reviews etc. Everyone goes to TripAdvisor. You might have 500 TripAdvisor reviews but most of them don’t actually say very much. They’re opinions and don’t really back-up their opinions. Your reviews have a clear format and plenty of images – a picture’s worth a thousand words etc etc

    1. Thank you, John… I’m glad you enjoy them. We do try to present thorough reviews with lots of imagery, as you say. They are becoming increasingly popular, too, so hopefully you are not alone in liking them!

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